APACS: Banking industry update on new faster payments service

APACS, the UK payments association, has today (27 February 2008) confirmed that the banking industry is on track to deliver the infrastructure that will enable a new faster payments service to be launched starting on 27th May this year. The development of this new system is a massive and complex project involving significant investment both within banks and the central infrastructure.

The new service will benefit customers by speeding up one-off payments made over the internet or by phone, enabling them to be made all day every day: they currently take three days. It will also enable regular standing order payments to move more quickly on bank working days: reducing the timescale from three days to provide a same day service. The new system will run alongside existing UK electronic payment schemes such as Bacs and CHAPS.

As the launch of the new system approaches, further updates and information will be provided and clear information made available to customers about the impact this will have on them.


ENDS

For further information contact the APACS Press Office on 020 7711 6316

The thirteen founding members are: Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, Barclays, Citibank, Co-operative Bank, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, National Australia Group, Nationwide Building Society, Northern Bank (Danske Bank), Northern Rock, Royal Bank of Scotland Group. They account for over 97% of all payments made in the UK. Immediate Payments Ltd. (IPL), a VocaLink company is to provide the infrastructure for the faster payments service.

Currently internet, and phone payments account for just 4% of automated payment volumes, but these are growing rapidly as customers increasingly turn to them instead of more traditional payment methods such as cheques. Standing orders account for 9% of automated payments. The new system is being built to cater for the large volume increases projected for the future. The remaining 87% of automated payments are 'bulk' transactions generated by organisations and businesses both large and small and are: Direct Debits, used to pay utility bills, life and general insurance premiums and various subscriptions; Bacs Direct Credits, used for salary payments, pensions, and state benefits and CHAPS payments.

APACS is the trade body that gives banks, building societies and card issuers a forum where they can work together on non-competitive issues. We help manage the way that businesses and individuals in the UK move their money around - this covers cash, credit and debit cards, cheques and automated payments such as Direct Debits, salary payments and online/phone transactions. We lead the fight against banking fraud and twice a year we publish figures on payment industry fraud losses.